


your light to the earth in darkness

by girlmarauders



Category: Firefly
Genre: Ancient Egyptian Literature & Mythology, Gen, Remix, Vaguely implied incest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-16
Updated: 2019-05-16
Packaged: 2020-03-06 09:47:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,035
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18848563
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/girlmarauders/pseuds/girlmarauders
Summary: River and Simon discuss marriage, with the intervention of the captain.





	your light to the earth in darkness

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [[podfic] Osiris](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13929735) by [BabelGhoti](https://archiveofourown.org/users/BabelGhoti/pseuds/BabelGhoti). 



> Come to thy house, O Osiris, who judges the gods.  
> Open your eyes that you may see with them ;  
> Drive away the clouds,  
> Give your light to the earth in darkness!  
> Come to thy house, O Osiris, first of the Westerners, come to thy house
> 
> \- Lamentations of Isis and Nephthys (312 B.C.)

“It happens on lots of planets, you know,” River said, her voice a sort of forced casual. 

“Absolutely not,” Simon said. He was in the infirmary, his back turned to the door, and River sniffed a little at being so clearly ignored. “We’ve talked about this mei mei.”

“Well, I don't think you've thought about it with what someone might call seriousness,” Mal said, clumping heavily down the stairs. Simon jumped. He hadn't heard Mal coming. River didn't twitch. She'd heard his thoughts on the other side of the ship, had followed his journey from disinterest, to a passing worry about the engine, to a reminder that he wanted to press the issue with Simon, who was still resisting what Mal thought was a very good plan. It wasn't one of Mal’s plans, which made it a lot better than anything the crew usually attempted. 

Simon rinsed his hands in the infirmary sink, and then dried them on a spare rag, coming to the doorway to lean against the jam. 

“I have thought about it Mal, and I still don't like it. I hardly think I can be accused of being too squeamish for not wanting to marry my sister,” he said. 

“It’s for crime, Simon,” River said, exasperated. Mal gestured at her, as if to say _see, she agrees with me._

“Yes, I’m aware,” Simon said dryly. “Funny how that doesn’t make me more keen.”

“Well, funny how I don’t care about that,” Mal said, swaggering a little as he came the rest of the way down the stairs. Behind his back, River rolled her eyes. Mal always thought he could order Simon around, and it never worked. “Look, all you need to do is agree to the fake ceremony, have the preacher say some pretty words over you while the law and all mighty heaven watches, and then we’re home free.” 

“And the Shepherd is okay with this?” Simon said doubtfully. Mal shrugged. 

“I can’t say he’s overjoyed, but he doesn’t like being chased by the law here there and everywhere any more than the rest of us, and a new identity is the best way we’ve come on yet of keeping your little crazybrain safe,” he said. 

“I’m feeling very sane today,” River said, amd Mal waved a hand at her. 

“I appreciate that,” Mal said, and then raised an eyebrow at her. She was lying upside down on the sofa outside the infirmary, her hair hanging off the edge and dragging off the floor. She stared back at him. Everything looked better upside down. 

“We’re landing on Sobek in a few hours. Make sure you’ve got your moral dilemma figured out by then doc,” Mal said, and walked through the hall and into the cargo bay. Simon looked at her. 

“I blame you for all of this you know,” he said dryly, and she nodded, still upside down. 

“I know,” she said. Simon sighed. He put down the rag he had been reflexively drying his hands on, and came out to sit next to her. Carefully, he patted her bare knee. 

“Mei mei,” he said gently, and she rolled over to sit straight up. She could feel his jangling discordant thoughts. Simon was always thinking about at least six things, and it felt like listening to multiple different songs at once, everything out of tune. She wished she could comfort him, and make one of the songs quiet down, but she couldn't sort the music from her own thoughts, her own worries. “Are you sure about this?” he asked, after she didn’t say anything. She nodded. 

“It makes sense to me,” she said. “Like the story. Isis lifted her spouse from the underworld.”

“A story?” he asked, making a confused face. She nodded. Telling herself stories in her head made each of the lines of Serenity’s twisting song easier to listen to, easier to understand. Myths were the best, because they never had to end. Simon tipped his head to one side, and she let him puzzle through what she had said. 

She put her hand on his and squeezed gently. 

“Isis loved Osiris, so she found the secret places where Set had hidden the pieces of him, and brought him back to the world of the living. They loved each other, and they were brother and sister,” she said. It did make sense to her, even if it didn’t to Simon. It was just a deception, but she knew now that everything was a deception. Everyone had thoughts they didn’t say aloud, or thought one thing and said the opposite, or pretended to be sure when truthfully they were insecure and uncertain. Lie, deception and make-believe were the only way to make sense of it all. 

Simon looked at her tenderly. She had known he loved her even before all the minds of everyone cracked open to her view. Only he had come to find her, and it did not matter if he was family, because her other family had not done the same. Simon was special, and he loved her, and she did her best to love him back, through other people’s thoughts. He moved one of the strands of her hair off her face, and behind one ear. 

“River,” he said. “You aren’t in pieces.” 

“Because you put me back together. Osiris never returned to Egypt, but he was lord of the underworld, and king of rebirth,” she said. “And Isis was the god of medicine, and of children and magic.”

Simon opened his mouth to speak, and then paused, looking at her strangely. 

“Osiris and Isis had a child together,” he said slowly, and River finally realised the emotion he was feeling was _alarm_. She laughed. 

“It’s a story you boob,” she said, and then punched his shoulder. “I wanted to make you feel better!”

“Oh, okay,” Simon said, and then blushed bright red. She wrinkled her nose. 

“Stop thinking that,” she said, and he turned even more red. She laughed, and he stood. 

“I’m... going to go eat,” he said, and turned to the cargo hold. 

“Put a nice shirt on for the wedding!” she shouted after him, and, from the hold, she heard Mal laugh.


End file.
